Category Archives: Whole 30

The first day on Whole 30 called for the most basic recipe, one whose Whole 30 compliance had been met in the past without my realizing it. This was my first attempt at cooking with coconut oil, but it certainly won’t be my last.

In a heavy, non-stick skillet heat the coconut oil and add the potato with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Fry the potatoes over medium heat until just starting to crisp (15-20 minutes depending on how small your potatoes are). Stir constantly while frying.

Remove the potatoes and drain. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft. If the potatoes absorbed too much of the oil, add enough just to ensure your onions don’t stick and burn. Don’t add too much, you’ll end up with oily hash.

Stir the potatoes back into the onion and combine. Heat until the potatoes are warm again.

Serve the hash with eggs prepared in your favorite style. I suggest trying them with a warm, runny yolk to mix into the hash. Few things in life are as delicious.

You can add in lots of ingredients into your hash including another protein (bacon, ham, sausage, turkey), and other veggies like bell peppers and tomatoes. The above recipe is a blank canvas for a simple dish or a to be added to for a unique breakfast.

Third day on Whole 30. Third trip to the grocery store in 4 days. We are using what meager store of vegetables we stockpiled before Whole 30 at a crazy rate and it’s really showing me how little I ate vegetables before, at least at home. More bell peppers. More onions. Sweet potatoes! I want to buy the whole produce department, but my pantry and fridge aren’t large enough.

I haven’t cooked this much in a long time because I felt I didn’t have the time to cook every meal from scratch, and to be fair, it’s been a challenge to fit it into my days. With my schedule it will always be difficult to prepare meals the way I’d like to, but this is for my health as much as it is something I just want to do, so I have to make the effort to make it work.

I’ve never made poached eggs before. I’ve been in a kitchen while they were made several times. I believe there is a number that was created, larger than a googolplex, to describe the number of poached eggs I’ve consumed in my lifetime. There are few things in life better than the warm, runny yolk of a poached egg mixed into a delicious, potato hash. And so today’s menu opens on my version of a Whole 30 approved breakfast.

I woke up this morning, fully prepared to face what was sure to be a terrible headache and massive food cravings after denying myself the staples that make up much of my regular diet. The program warned that the second and third days were likely to bring some withdrawal issues as the body learns to deal without the normal nutrition it receives.

Nothing. Clear mind. As clear as it could be with my allergies or cold or whatever it is that hit me before the year ended. But I had none of the serious problems that I thought I would have. Not even the cravings. Sure, I see off-limit items still in the house (the entire house is not Whole 30) but I don’t mindlessly reach for them as I pass by.

Mindlessly is actually a dangerous word here. I consciously would say to myself, “Hey, self, I’m sure that tastes good. Put it in your mouth and confirm my hypothesis.” And by my mind’s crude attempt at the scientific method I would verify, bit by bit, that the gingerbread house on the counter is, in fact, tasty. And it continued to be tasty every hour. I still pass by the remnants of that rubble pile that was once a sugary edifice, but I don’t have the same desire to just reach out and shove a piece of it in my face. This isn’t a result of the program.

I learned to say no. At least I hope I’ve learned to say no.

Sure, the program is about making smarter choices on food, and in doing so, denying yourself those things you used to eat, you preferred to eat, you really looked forward to eating. But I’ve barely been on Whole 30 long enough for this to be a learned habit. I just had to stop giving in to my terrible impulses.

It’s not difficult. I won’t kid myself and say that at some point I won’t struggle with wanting to eat something, but food can’t have that kind of control over me to make me feel I need to have some treat immediately simply because I think I need it, or just because it’s accessible.

I can do this. Anyone who wants to do this can do this. Just say yes to saying no.

Today begins a new chapter in my life. After 31 years of poor decisions regarding food I’ve had enough. I eat when I am sad. I eat when I’m happy. I eat when I’m bored. I eat because I walked by the refrigerator. I enjoy food, but I enjoy it far too much and too often.

My love affair with food started at a young age. I was eager to help out in the kitchen and took every opportunity to help cook or to make meals for myself. This is all well and good as long as I possessed the self control to keep my eating and snacking in check. Sadly, over the years I grew in the habit of making more and more food and increasing my portion sizes far larger than they needed to be. Three-hundred-and-seven pounds later, I’m a mess. I know how to cook good food, and food that is good for me, but it does me no good when I eat a second or third serving of it just because it’s sitting there. I needed to make a conscious effort to understand what I could eat, how much I should eat, and how I should go about balancing my diet.

So, today, I began Whole30. For the next thirty days I am committing to return to whole and natural foods and to leave behind processed foods and items that are known to potentially cause health and weight issues. This isn’t a condemnation of certain foods necessarily, but a dietary regimen designed to hopefully push the reset button on some of the bad habits I’ve developed and the state of health I’ve put my body in.

No dairy. No legumes. No alcohol. No grains. No MSG. It’s not entirely paleo, or other diet system, but it seems close to other low/no-carbohydrate, high protein plans. It isn’t designed to be a replacement for one’s diet forever, they understand that denial leads to cravings which make people break their plans. But hopefully, after 30 days, I’ll have at least started to gain the habits necessary to lead a healthier lifestyle.

I hope to start tracking my meals and discussing them through this blog and to post recipes where I can. For now, I’ll just have to do with a simple listing of my menu for Day 1.

Breakfast – Hash with Fried Eggs
Hash and Fried Eggs

Lunch – Chicken and Carrot Stir Fry in Mustard Sauce

Chicken and Carrot Stir Fry

Dinner – Cajun Seasoned Pangasius with Zucchini

Cajun-Seasoned Pangasius with Zucchini

After all of this I did find myself craving more food in the evening. I ate a banana as a snack and it seems to have sated my hunger. I’ve quickly come to see that even in preparing for the new diet I still do not have nearly enough vegetables to keep up. Time to get reacquainted with the produce department.

It is a new year and with it come new hopes and dreams, new aspirations, new adventures and new possibilities.

Or something like that.

I’m bad at resolutions. I’ve made some interesting ones in the past but I lack the *shock* resolve to keep up with them. Like so many other people, exercise schedules are cast aside, plans are put off, promises are broken or forgotten… and who can blame anyone for not fulfilling a half-baked intention that was likely dreamt up after finishing a bottle of prosecco and a few beers? Lesser men would give up and resolve to never make a new year’s resolution again.

I might be a lesser man.

The problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that they are driven by some necessity to follow along with tradition to fit in with the spirit of the season. But why try to commit to a major decision without any real thought, planning, or the proper desire to follow-through with a goal? At best, you never intended to do anything and have wasted a few words. At worst, you let yourself down because you failed to really prepare for your good idea.

I’m no longer making New Year’s Resolutions. I will not start off a year with the insane prospect of getting into amazing shape in a ridiculously short period of time. I will not kid myself into thinking that I will work up to running 6 miles a day every day by the summer. I couldn’t possibly lead myself to believe that I’ll become more organized, neat, clean and clutter-free.

I certainly couldn’t expect myself to meet any of these goals simply because I just traveled another 384 millimon miles around the Sun. I am in roughly the same physical place I was last year (in relation to the Sun, at least) after this grand journey around a glowing nuclear fission reaction that is the sole reason we have enough warmth to survive and keeps our tiny blue marble from careening endlessly out into space. What significance could this possibly have on my personal goals?

This doesn’t mean that I don’t have personal goals. I have tons. And I expect to meet them when I set them. I have but one resolution to make. That I am making it on the first of January is merely coincidence.

I resolve to be a better person. To make each day better than the last and to be proud of the life I am living. After this, everything else will follow suit.